Singaporean faces 2 more Wirecard related charges

Singapore

SINGAPOREAN R Shanmugaratnam faces two more charges over falsifying letters that misrepresented balances held by his company's escrow accounts as at March 31, 2016.

These letters were addressed to Wirecard UK & Ireland Ltd and Cardsystems Middle East FZ, from Citadelle Corporate Services - one of the two companies being probed by Singapore authorities.

Shanmugaratnam was a director at Citadelle, and was described by the Financial Times as having "controlled" the company.

The 54-year-old was previously slapped with four charges of falsifying letters which misrepresented balances held by Citadelle in an escrow account with amounts ranging between 30 million euros (S$48.8 million) and 178 million euros.

The fifth charge pertains to a falsified letter to Wirecard UK & Ireland, representing that there was a balance of 41.5 million euros held by Citadelle in an escrow account, when the account did not hold such a balance.

The sixth charge is over another falsified letter addressed to Cardsystems Middle East FZ, which misrepresented that there was a balance of 30.4 million euros held by Citadelle in another escrow account.

Both offences are punishable under Section 477A of the Penal Code, the charge sheet noted.

Citadelle reportedly handled money for Wirecard in a trustee capacity, although it was not licensed to do so in Singapore; neither was it under the supervision of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The regulator has placed Citadelle on the Investor Alert List on its website.